Guest column: A little blood never spoils the fun

My wife has to manage both boys on her own quite frequently thanks to the hours I work. She makes it look easy.

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By Kent Bush

The Lake News Online

By Kent Bush

Posted Jul. 3, 2013 at 6:00 PM

By Kent Bush

Posted Jul. 3, 2013 at 6:00 PM

Lake area

We survived. Isn't that what really counts?

My wife has to manage both boys on her own quite frequently thanks to the hours I work. She makes it look easy.

But in the two years we have had Dawit, I can only remember one other time that both boys were left with only me overnight. I know I had never had to manage three days.

Each of them bled, but only once.

But we did what we always do. We had fun.

Friday night they had Vacation Bible School at church. That provided two and a half hours of fun, and we watched television and got ready for bed when they were home.

Saturday started with an early morning trip to the Sedgwick County Zoo. We have a family membership so it was both fun and free.

Before the trip, we had to eat. I asked Dawit what he wanted for breakfast. He chose tacos.

I told him we couldn't have tacos for breakfast, but he was quick to point out that people eat burritos for breakfast — burritos are like tacos, right?

So we set out to find somewhere to get tacos for breakfast. Luckily, he changed his mind when he saw an IHOP restaurant. We finished breakfast and headed to the zoo.

We made a loop and enjoyed a few demonstrations before heading back home.

At the house, we played on the trampoline and the boys shot each other with water to help beat the heat. Blake ran into the house and wet feet on slick floors proved to be a bad combination, and he slipped and fell into the wall. He made several small gouges in his knee that required a trip to see Dr. Dad. We cleaned up the cuts and covered them with a bandage.

After a little rest and relaxation, Blake decided he was ready to have some more fun so we had a quick snack and headed back to a local entertainment center.

After winning some games and riding some rides, we realized it was getting dark, so we stopped at a grocery store and headed home after a long day.

While we were there, Dawit, who is 6 but loves to help, was pushing the cart and accidentally busted his lip when he bumped into it. After stopping the bleeding and replenishing our food supplies, we all cozied up and watched a movie and got some sleep.

Sunday was another full day. We went to church, had lunch and even went to a park with a splash pad to pass the time. We followed that with a stop for ice cream.

Finally, we got home and tried to relax before my wife returned home. We did laundry, vacuumed and took out the trash.

Page 2 of 2 - It was one of those weekends that went really well. But I don't know that I could repeat it. I was worn out and I know I left so many things undone.

If I ever ended up as a single father, I would definitely have Alice from the "Brady Bunch" moved into my house immediately.

We made it through this weekend and we had fun. We didn't destroy anything and they each had only one battle scar.

I don't think I could do it every day, but occasionally I can make this dad thing work.